Mass shootings and mental health: What can be done?
July 5, 2018
Editor's note: This is part of a series investigating gun violence from many angles . It has become routine. Reports come in on another mass shooting. This time it’s at a school. A church. A newsroom. Politicians express their deepest sympathies and the grieving public offers their thoughts and prayers. Then the questions begin. What was the perpetrator’s motive? Should...
Can parenting skills prevent childhood obesity?
June 29, 2018
Researchers in Arizona State University’s Department of Psychology received a five-year grant for just under $2.5 million from the USDA to implement an intervention program that targets childhood obesity in a novel way: by teaching parenting skills. In the United States, approximately 9 percent of children ages 2–5 years and 17 percent of children ages 6–11 years are obese. Childhood...
ASU study aims to develop a risk model to pinpoint future bird flu outbreaks
June 26, 2018
Matthew Scotch, associate professor of biomedical informatics at Arizona State University's College of Health Solutions and assistant director of the Biodesign Center for Environmental Health Engineering, has received a $75,000 PLuS Alliance Accelerator Award to study how avian flu mutates and spreads. Scotch and his team will work to develop a risk model that enhances global security against future outbreaks...
Aging with autism
June 20, 2018
In 1980, “infantile autism” was recognized as its own condition by the medical community. Around the country, schools, parents and doctors began to identify children with what would later be called autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and the number of diagnoses skyrocketed. Cut to nearly 40 years later, and those first children diagnosed with autism have grown up. They’re adults now,...
Arizona named an anti-vaccine hot spot
June 18, 2018
A recent study named Arizona one of several “hot spots” in the nation for higher-than-average rates of nonmedical vaccination exemptions. According to the study , published in the journal PLOS Medicine, Arizona has seen an increase in the number of parents seeking vaccination exemptions for their children for religious or philosophical reasons. According to the study, for the 2016-17 school...
College of Health Solutions focuses on youth interventions for lifelong health
June 15, 2018
Research shows that the earlier kids are exposed to healthy lifestyle habits, the more likely they are to be healthy adults. Professors and researchers at Arizona State University’s College of Health Solutions are putting that knowledge to practice in a variety of ways, from summer camps that teach children about nutrition and physical activity to giving school lunchrooms a healthy...
Summer is no vacation for these faculty
June 13, 2018
School may be out for the semester, but for select faculty from Arizona State University's Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering and College of Health Solutions, summer is no time for a break. Mayo Clinic and ASU Alliance for Health Care has selected 11 distinguished faculty to be part of the Faculty Summer Residency Program. Now in its second year,...
Diminishing returns may threaten Medicare, Social Security
June 13, 2018
The Trump administration recently announced that the Medicare trust fund will be depleted by 2026 — three years earlier than previous estimates — and the Social Security trust fund will be exhausted by 2034. To better understand how this could impact the more than 60 million Americans who rely on these programs, ASU Now spoke to Swapna Reddy, clinical assistant...
ASU Regents' Professor recognized for lifetime contribution to exercise research
June 12, 2018
We all know it takes energy to run a mile, but how much? What about brushing our teeth? Or playing a board game? Or just lying on the couch watching TV? Can we easily find out exactly how much energy and how many calories we’re using for every activity, day or night? Thanks to Barbara Ainsworth, we can. Ainsworth is...
ASU Obesity Solutions looks back on 5 years of progress
June 7, 2018
More than one-third of American adults and roughly 17 percent of children in the U.S. are obese, a condition behind some of the leading causes of preventable death, including heart disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes and cancer. Five years ago Arizona State University launched Obesity Solutions, a uniquely transdisciplinary initiative funded by a donation from the Virginia G. Piper Charitable...